Colossus Chronicles: War Up North (wip)

There are several thousand to a million monsters in the world, Greek, Norse, Egyptian and Hawaiian. In many of the legends, they are very clever and horrifically strong, the giants in "The Odyssey" had thriving civilizations when they were encountered. Why are the only monsters that Percy Jackson and the campers meet, with a few exceptions, so disorganized and often unsupported in their attacks? Well, monsters actually get together more then you think, and when they do they often must be dealt with by a group of individuals with a semi-thankless job and less pay then the job entails. This is one of those stories.---------------------------------------The CFNS Knight shot across the surface of the water like some kind of unholy 1500 ton metal shark thing with hydrofoils and guns on top of it's head. This was not too far off as the corvette was loaded to the hilt with ammunition and did indeed weigh 1500 tons, though, it did not have hydrofoils, instead opting for four diesel turbines. She was a machine of war, dealing out death to all comers and completing her mission while also bringing her steadfast crew of 43 men and women. 20 kilometers back were the CFNS Orion and CFNS February, the amphibious landing ship and frigate simply waited for the CFNS Knight to have her fun with the target first.

The target loomed into sight, a small floating mountain, enchanted by some of the more powerful witches. The fortress on the mountain was massive and had projected the might of the monsters across vast spans of the globe. Now it was the home base of one of the larger remnants of Chronos's disbanded army, but it was still a formidable force indeed, having repelled every attack against it until now. Keywords: Until now. A massive horde of monsters, Minotaur, giants, cyclopses, the whole nine yards and then some. They wheeled great cannons out, all 120 cannons gleemed in the sun, 32 pounders, 18 pounders, all the way down to 6 pounder parrot guns.

The CFNS Knight began slowing down, seemingly in fear of the great many weapons that protruded from the fortress. The monsters misinterperated this as fear so they threw themselves upon the carriages of their carronades and bombards to reload them. As the Knight began turning, the first volley was already in position. The leader, a minotaur so massive that he carried a 3 inch rifle as his personal weapon, raised his arm and brought it down in the direction of the Knight, snarling out the order to fire. The walls of the fortress seemingly exploded as smoke obscured the entire citadel, great cannon balls flew up and into the air, arching towards their target like some kind of unholy iron rain.

"Eep!" squeeked Annie as she was thrown from her feet. The ship rocked violently and, rubbing her head, the daughter of Apollo climbed back into her captain's chair. She looked slightly miffed as the bridge crew cracked up at her expense but the chuckling died down and went back to their work.

"Engineering. Status report."

"Aye ma'am, little to no damage, we need to replace some of the railings and do a bit of repainting but nothing else other then that."

"Everyone, get ready for close range engagement. Those things can't even dent this ship, begin targeting for the main gun. Gunnery, have the typhoons start killing the 32 pounders and the carronades. They're annoying. Also, slave fire control for the 57 to the manual captain's panel, target the highest collection of heat you can get."

"Aye ma'am, gun slaved. Beginning targeting."

"Bring the ship around, point the starboard typhoon mount at the enemy. Bring about the 57."

"Aye. Hard port! Accelerate to combat velocity."

The CFNS Knight turned her agile mass and darted to port. The 57mm Bofors cannon swiveled around, gleaming menacingly in the sunlight. Annie yanked out the manual fire trigger for the gun and pulled once. The cannon exploded into action, sending a single shell downrange and into one of the firing ports of the fortress. The shell, loaded with a high explosive charge, was a fascinating specimen of modern warfare. Equipped with a proximity sensor and an inertial unit, the shell was capable of tracking its position from the ship and to the target. Once it was near the target, a small onboard computer cross referenced the distance traveled from the ship and the distance to the target with the firing solution provided by the main gun. Since it was within acceptable limits, the computer engaged the firing primer which triggered main explosive charge.

The shell exploded atop the gun crew for a 32 pounder carronade. The explosive shockwave, the heat and the shrapnel turned the gun into so much scrap iron while the gun crew didn't fare nearly as well. The sonic overpressure was strong enough to blow out eardrums, liquidate the brain and intestines, rupture lung tissue, cardiac tissue and the walls of the capilaries and veins. Bones were pulverized, massive internal bleeding erupted within milliseconds and the brain suffered massive concussive forced, killing the unfortunate creatures before they even hit the ground. Shrapnel and the heat wave swooped in an finished up what was left by reducing everything within a 3 meter radius into something more likely to be associated with a low grade medium-rare steak.

Annie yanked the trigger again and again, the horrible cycle of death continued. The typhoon mount roared to life and spat out 25mm explosive rounds at the side of the fortress. Explosions tore down embattlements, destroyed guns, massacred the crews, and ripped open the infantry like they were nothing. Giants who would have shrugged off arrows like oversized sewing needles found gaping holes in their chests while minotaurs or other smaller monsters simply ended up as piles of limbs and meat soup. Nothing was spared the destruction.

"Ma'am! The main cannon is fully charged."

"Good. Turn the ship to starboard 90 degrees! Target is the main keep."

"Ma'am! Target is locked. Ready to fire on your command."

"Fire."

"Firing main cannon."

Annie smirked. The ship rocked backwards as it fired the kinetic dart at hypervelocity. The structure of the ship groaned as it took the recoil from the railgun but held firm. The dart flew an almost flat trajectory towards the keep and with so much kinetic energy, it was equal to if not greater than a tomahawk cruise missile warhead. The keep exploded violently and dispelled the spell keeping the mountain afloat. Luckily though, it had long ago been hollowed out and there was just slightly more material than one or two full sized aircraft carriers so it was guaranteed not to raise the water level of the ocean enough to be noticeable to the mortal world. The mountain began to sink, causing the monsters to go into panic mode as they desperately tried to climb to high ground or get on the ships still moored to the mountainside. Many monsters fled but for most of those still behind the walls of the fortress, the same walls that kept them safe now promised to be their tombstones.

The mountain collapsed and then quickly slipped beneath the waves, dragging hundreds down to their deaths. The battle wasn't done yet though, the force was not wiped out yet, these were the elite monsters, each was worth two or three soldiers or three or four campers so to allow them to escape was in short, unacceptable. The survivors managed to get aboard their ships and they deployed a number of sloops, brigantines, even longboats and galleys, all headed by what was at least a sixth rate vessel these ships though were much more dangerous, though not by much, because the monsters, though they were extremely dumb, had salvaged some old howitzers from somewhere around the civil war and were deploying explosive shells, slow match fuses still, but thy still went boom.

"We will not allow them to escape! Helm! Turn us towards those ships, they die here."

"Aye ma'am!"

"Weapons, order all weapons to fire as they bare. Tell the February that they can have their fun."

On the main screen, two triangular icons appeared and it appeared that they had been assigned the names Shark-1 and Shark-2. Two voiced suddenly came over the comm channel.

"Shark-1 inbound, acquiring target"

"Shark-2 inbound, acquiring target"

"Sharks attacking enemy lead. Opening fire! gunsgunsguns!"

*BRRRRRAAAP!* Clouds of smoke erupted from the noses of the two planes as 25mm Gatling guns opened up on the leading sixth rate. Monsters were cut down mercilessly and the wooden deck of the ship was torn up and caught fire as hundreds of shells slammed into it. One lucky shell breached the powder magazine and exploded, sending the entire midsection of the ship up in flames. The resulting fireball was big enough to blast out the entire midsection of the ship and kill 50% of the crew who had survived up to that point. The two halves of the ship were actually propelled 25 feet in oposite directions before they hit the water once more and sank like stones. The Harriers pulled up and began to circle around, picking out new targets each and raining down vengeance.

Not to be outdone by the jets, the main cannon of the CFNS Knight let out a resounding crack and the shell shot forward and explosively bisected one of the brigantines, the sheer force detonated the powder magazines and sent the ship to the bottom. The typhoon mounts and th 57mm cannon also opened up and began raining down hell upon the enemy. A sloop actually managed to lob a howitzer broadside at the Knight but the CIWS instantly swiveled around and filled the sky with lead, sweeping across and destroying all of the explosive shells before any of the could reach the intended target. The sloop that launched the barrage was repaid in three high explosive shells tearing into its hull and setting the timbers ablaze. The flames quickly raged out of control until it reached several powderbags sitting next to a few abandoned cannon. It's fate was easy to guess.

The typhoon mounts using their bushmaster M242 chainguns ripped into the enemy with hellish accuracy and ripped apart another sloop which caught fire. Monsters ran to douse the fire but more of them decided to abandon their ship before what happened to the other ships happened to this one, and happen it did. The fire reached the powder magazines and the entire thing erupted into a giant fireball but the typhoons had moved onto another victim along with the 57mm cannon. The CFNS Knight became an efficient killing machine as the main cannon roared many times and sent ships to the bottom in horrific ways and depth charges from the harriers above killed all those who flailed about in the water and when the CFNS February joined in the fun to clean up, the fate of all was sealed. They all went to hell and the sad part was, as horrible as their deaths were, they had been just as unremarkable as all who had come before them..

"The Colossus Foundation is a menace! We must not allow them to continue gaining more power!" Yelled on of the Olympian council members as they convened this day to discuss the foundation's actions and their current abilities. Currently, the council was split on weather to allow the Foundation to continue with their unorthodox ways or not.

The council building was arranged like and amphitheater with Councilors seated around it. Currently, there were representatives from all factions on Olympus as well as representatives from other pantheons as well. The romans also had a representative as well who had been chosen as one of the more rationally headed of them and ironically was one of the god Mars' subordinates. Unlike the greek god of war Ares, Mars was a level headed and rational person who thought of the big picture and had actually greatly enjoyed reading Sun Tzu's Art of War unlike Ares who scoffed at art and science and simply preferred to charge in and start swinging at anything that moved.

"We cannot simply abandon Colossus. They too great an asset to us for us to simply let go!" Rebuted another of the councilors. "The Colossus Armada has done with a single ship what would take fifty of our ships and the only expense for them is the cost of more ammunition and a new paint job."

"That is the point! They are too powerful. We must cut them off before they finish off Kronos and turn their sights on us!"

Now, to fully understand why the Olympians are distressed by Colossus's military might, you must understand that the Olympians are not tech savy people at all. Well, except Hephaestus but he isn't able to put his stuff to use because Olympians simply cannot use modern technology, all the technology that olympus does use is simply an emulation using magic, hell, ballpoint pens are cutting edge. The most sophisticated warship available to the Olympians without a connection the the Colossus Foundation is the Argo 2 which was built by camp half blood and even then, the most sophisticated piece of electronics onboard that ship are the Wii remotes used to steer it. This pales in comparison to Colossus's most sophisticated piece of technology, the SPY-1 RADAR system. Also keep in mind that while the Argo would need to bring all of its armaments to bear to damage even the CFNS Knight, the Knight could sink the Argo 2 with a single shot, never mind the larger ships which are armed with Sea Sparrows or god forbid it attacks one of the cruisers which have Tomahawks.

"They will not turn their sights on us. I have met their leader myself and so has Athena, she deems him them all trustworthy and the remainder of their soldiers are only pre-existing contractors or automatons. Besides, they are not too powerful."

"They are subverting our ways! There is no honor in how they fight, did you see what they did? The enemy didn't even stand a chance."

Let the reader understand that the ballpoint pen is about the most advanced piece of technology that Olympus uses, meaning that all Olympian forces are armed with swords and bows. The most advanced force would be Hephaestus's personal guard which is armed with muskets, though the smith god is trying to train them to use revolvers, wonderful stuff those.

"They were facing a floating mountain full of elite monsters who would have slaughtered the campers at Camp-Half Blood had they made it to Manhattan. There is nothing wrong with how they fight."

"Look at their ships, look at their weapons. There is no skill needed to wield those weapons, they could place one in the hands of an infant and kill skilled swordsmen from a distance. Worse still, they are building more. The ship that eliminated that floating fortress was one of the weakest of their ships. They have seven and when I look down upon their shipyards, I see that they are constructing four more! Just four weeks ago, I saw them launch one more of their frigates, a ship far mightier than their so called corvettes, and that is still not the most powerful ship they have. Their aircraft carrier is a monster."

"Which is why we have them working for us. Besides, Hephaestus, Apollo, and Hermes are proud of their sons and daughter's achievements. Aesculapius is pleased with the disaster relief capability of not only that capital ship but also the two carriers and the three amphibious craft. Those ships including the corvettes are invaluable in search and rescue."

The councilor was not to be put down however, and some of his supporters also shouted their assent including the Ares representative. However, the council was interrupted by another far stronger and more authoritative voice. The Mars representative stood up.

"Stop this bickering. There is no honor in senseless fighting, there is only honor in defeating the enemy and bringing your soldiers home. I applaud Colossus on adopting modern weaponry since we cannot due to our forces' inabilities to learn how to use those systems. Besides, if you were to force Colossus to disarm then you would need to ask the same of the Japanese." The Mars representative stated in a matter of fact tone while also looking over to the Japanese representative, a minor god who was also the oldest representative in the room. The wizened old man simply nodded and stood up.

Now, one must understand in this situation, while Colossus may be highly advanced, it is second only to it's Japanese counterpart which is named Akarikaze. Akarikaze is much bigger, wealthier, and far more powerful. To put that into perspective, Colossus's flagship is a conventionally powered STVOL carrier with a large main weapon. Akarikaze's flagship is the rebuilt battleship Yamato, outfitted with SPY-2 RADAR, a supercomputer system, modern missile weaponry and overhauled to use two nuclear reactors, it puts the CFNS Freakshow to shame.

There was much bickering that night, and it extended into the day before they finally ended the session.------------------------------"What?" Asked Sam in a dangerous tone as he stared at the Councilor before him. At only 17 years old, Samuel Diablos O'Neil was easily one of the most successful men in the world, due to his position at his age and due to his achievements though nobody would ever know them. He did not get to his position based purely on luck however, and his sheer competence made him scary at times. This was one of those times as he stared down the minor god who had brought him the news.

The man gulped. "The council is requesting that your forces temporarily cease operations for inspection by an independent committee due to arrive in four days time."

Same glared, the sunlight hit his glasses so that the reflection shined back and obscure his eyes. This was him at his scariest. Normally he would be a happy-go-lucky guy, hyper-competent but under control. The reason he was so goofy however was because it obscured his true nature.

"Colossus will not cease operation. If we stop, Kronos's forces that we've been keeping occupied at the Maw will break through and our land forces are not ready to handle that kind of stress. The committee can inspect the ships while they are in action, but I will not shut them down. Do I make myself clear?" He said in a low voice. His voice carried well through his office and the minor god in front of him almost shook in fear, only supported by the fact that he was in fact immortal.

"Now get out of my office." The tone would brook no argument.

"Y-yes, v-v-very well. I will leave that to you at once." Said the minor god and he hastened out of the door, not turning back for fear of the monster behind him.

As the door closed, Sam let out a breath and looked over the paperwork he had been given. He hated politics, really he did, the only things good that had happened was Etrius had gotten a girlfriend and the leader of Akarikaze was coming to visit. He hadn't had a chat with his dad in a while, mostly because he had been leading an incursion into the Maw of the Underworld to destroy some of the more advanced weapons that the monsters had been creating, mainly howitzers and a couple of third rates that they had been constructing, trashing the shipyards also helped as well.

He turned his chair to look out the window of his office which was situated in an office building in Taipei. The Taipei 101 stood in the distance looking as powerful and majestic as always while the city bustled below him. Sometimes with everything going on, it was easy to forget that 99% of the world's population didn't even know about the supernatural and what went on, heck, amongst the united states government, the only people who knew were the CIA, the secret service, a division of the FBI, the president, the vice president, and the science adviser. He could be a bit more open in taiwan though, and that was a plus in his book.

He really needed a day off, all that would be needed to screw the day over more would be something happening in that trouble sprinkler that was the Nordic countries, especially with their Giant problem.